


Seraselda Femslash February 2020

by prin_zyth



Category: Seraphina - Rachel Hartman, Shadow Scale - Rachel Hartman, Tess of the Road - Rachel Hartman
Genre: Drabble, Drabble Collection, F/F, Femslash February 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:20:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 2,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22512391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prin_zyth/pseuds/prin_zyth
Summary: daily drabbles about Seraselda using the Femslash February 2020 prompts
Relationships: Seraphina Dombegh/Princess Glisselda
Kudos: 6





	1. Rainbow

It rained for days and days.  
  
Ranleigh Cottage, though beautiful, was limiting. Seraphina grew bored of playing flute, even though Glisselda could have listened forever.  
  
Selda woke up late the fifth day and wandered downstairs, where she caught sight of her partner, holding their daughter, sitting out on the porch. She realized she couldn't hear the rain anymore.  
  
Glisselda sat down next to Phina, looking over at her. When she felt Selda's gaze upon her, Phina smiled, picking up one of Selda’s hands and squeezing it. They sat like that for hours, watching the newly formed rainbow on the horizon.


	2. Bloom

Floral bouquets quickly became a birthday tradition.  
  
They'd had many disappointing birthdays in the past; flowers were a simple way to make them easier.  
  
On Phina's 23rd birthday, she found an arrangement of carnations on the table. Selda said nothing about it, smiling softly when Phina noticed. The pair waited two weeks for the last bud in the bouquet to bloom; it remained stubbornly curled, much to Selda's impatient dismay.  
  
Finally, it began to unfold itself, becoming a gorgeous flower against the backdrop of the dying arrangement.  
  
It was beautiful, mournful.  
  
"It was worth the wait," Phina said. "Thank you."


	3. Secret

It had been a secret for so long that it was still hard to tell the truth. Selda kept finding herself holding back “I love you.” As someone who didn’t usually have trouble stating her feelings, this caught both her and Phina off-guard.

And of course, it was still a secret to almost everyone. Selda often worried about how they would explain their relationship to Zythia someday, and how they would ensure that she, too, kept it a secret.

Learning to release this truth, at least to Phina, was hard, but infinitely rewarding. Selda wouldn’t change their relationship for anything.


	4. Denim

Silk, violet with royal blue embroidery, pleated: to be worn for important affairs of state and meetings with foreign dignitaries, as well as palace balls and other celebrations where Selda was expected to look desirable.

Satin, plain and green, but with a touch of gold fringe at the hems: to be worn for everyday, run-of-the-mill queenly duties.

Denim, blue, torn in places, inconspicuous: to be worn for trips into Quighole with Phina. Disguised as peasants, wandering absently, holding hands in the part of the queendom where rules and customs fell short, where they were free to be whoever they chose.


	5. Note

Orma and Phina had a chord. It was strange, but Selda often found herself wishing for something like that.

Despite years of lessons and a wonderful teacher with whom she was very much in love, Selda knew nothing about forming chords. But what were chords but a note, and another note, and another note, and perhaps another? She could manage that.

She found one and considered showing it to Phina but realized that, unlike Orma and Phina's, it was useless. Still, it became a comfort, something to play to herself in the face of a world that felt impossibly daunting.


	6. Upside Down

Living with Selda was like living upside down. Phina was suddenly cast into brand-new situations.  
  
Selda was always dragging her to parties that Phina had spent the first seventeen years of her life scrupulously avoiding. On top of that, she was impossibly bolder than Seraphina was. Part of it was her queenliness, which she had already grown into almost entirely. But it was also something else, something inherent in Selda's personality that wouldn't stand for mistreatment, that took opportunities to laugh and celebrate, that loved unabashedly, without cause or hesitation.  
  
It was frightening, but Phina didn't mind being upside down.


	7. Dark

It was dark out as Phina and Selda returned to their chambers from the soiree. Selda was having fewer of them now that Zythia had been born and she had returned to her queenly responsibilities.

Playfully bumping into Phina, Selda declared, "Darling, you were turning heads tonight! Everyone's eyes were on you. I'm thrilled you let me do your hair look that; it looks lovely."

Seraphina touched her updo self-consciously. "Yes, it does look nice, doesn't it?"

Selda laughed. "Of course, silly." Taking Phina's hand, she leaned up onto her tiptoes and kissed her cheek. "Besides, you always do anyway."


	8. Make Up

Their fights, though rare, were brutal. Glisselda became flustered, while Seraphina remained painfully stoic, turning passive-aggressive and withholding affection of any kind.  
  
That day, Selda decided to withdraw aid to a group of freedom fighters near the Goredd-Samsam border. And Seraphina argued, then became instantly icy.  
  
Glisselda changed her mind almost instantly after storming out of the room—not just because of Phina, but because she was wrong.  
  
She went back, determined to make up, and crashed into Phina, apparently coming out to do the same.  
  
"I'm sorry," Phina whispered.  
  
Glisselda smiled through the tears in her eyes. "Me, too."


	9. Ocean

Glisselda was afraid of the ocean. It was the cause of her Aunt Laurel's death, the reason Kiggs was an orphan. Dionne had used it to scare her. "Don't be bad, Glisselda; we'll send you to the ocean."  
  
Seraphina had been, of course, but she was too preoccupied with Jannoula to appreciate the ocean’s beauty as much as she wanted.  
  
When they had to travel to Porphyry, Phina insisted they go by boat; Selda acquiesced. After days in her cabin, Selda let herself be coaxed on deck, where she and Phina spent the rest of their trip watching the sea.


	10. Competition

As soon as Glisselda remarked, “Chivalry looks better on a woman,” it became a competition. Seraphina held open doors, and Selda pulled out chairs. Even so, they mocked each other for how seriously they’d taken the apparent challenge.

They were subconsciously keeping score, attempting to accumulate more points than the other. Each time Phina offered Selda a jacket, she would gesture for Seraphina to walk ahead, both of them giggling.

They gave up when their mutual insistence that the other go first through a doorway devolved into laughing.

“Maybe,” Glisselda said, regaining her voice, “chivalry doesn’t look good on anyone."


	11. Blush

Seraphina was not a demonstrative person. She seemed cold, distant.

But she had a tell. Glisselda had found it long before they'd ever gotten together. It was what finally convinced Selda that she might just have a chance.

Phina blushed!

It became her mission to see that blush as often as possible: when she insisted on having Phina guide her fingers over the harpsichord keys, when she'd banter with her about her appearance, when she flirted with Millie in front of her just to see how she'd respond.

She could wait. She would wait. That blush was enough, for now.


	12. Another World

Seraphina had thought she understood royalty from being around them as court composer. Saints' bones, she'd been wrong. It was another world altogether from what she knew.

Suddenly, as someone mysteriously associated with the royal family, she was roped into meetings and dignified events and conversations with bitter old men who couldn't understand why those damn Porphyrians had to dress like that, or why these Goreddi men were suddenly letting their wives out and about so much.

And yet, it was worth it, if only for the sympathetic, but altogether too sadistic, looks that Glisselda shot her the whole time.


	13. Combat

Unlike most of her successors, Selda was an active, involved leader. When border conflicts occurred with Ninys and Samsam, she would do her best to negotiate. And if that failed, as it often did, she would fight alongside the Goreddi troops.

Seraphina would have asked her not to, would have begged her. And it would have worked. But even as the idea of Selda in combat terrified her, she realized that if she stayed, she wouldn't be her Selda anymore. So she let her go, praying each time to Saints she didn't believe were Saints that she would return safely.


	14. Love

Seraphina had never loved anyone in this way before, not even Kiggs. She loved him dearly, of course, but it was different somehow. Things with him were slower: reading together, sharing ideas about life and philosophy, taking turns looking after Zythia when she woke up.

But with Glisselda, love was exhilarating, fast-paced, almost out of control. It was all of the wonderful domestic things with Kiggs and more: parties, stolen kisses when they knew ambassadors and courtiers wouldn’t notice, causeless celebrations, and endless longing to just be together. It was exciting.

Seraphina had never loved anyone in this was before.


	15. Lace

Seraphina was leather. She was stiff, inflexible at first. But over time, she became looser, softer, amenable to gentle hands and welcoming warmth. She was never stunning in the same way as others, but she was strong, and in that strength there was beauty, firm and powerful.

Most people thought that Glisselda was lace: decorative, sweet, weak, impractical, useless. Seraphina had thought that too, briefly, before she’d met the young princess, standing on a chair and setting up a bucket to fall on her, and quickly discovered it wasn’t true. Glisselda was leather, too: polished, pristine leather, but strong nonetheless.


	16. Fire

Seraphina had seen a lot of fire. She'd seen buildings leveled by dragons in war, bringing their inhabitants down with them. She'd seen horrors that she could barely articulate, all of them etched into her memory, burned by a fire that no amount of water could put out.

She no longer experienced overwhelming visions during the day; now, they only came at night. She woke up crying, screaming. Or, sometimes, just quietly curled into herself. And yet no matter what, somehow, Glisselda always knew and woke up with her, cradling her until she was able to go back to sleep.


	17. Shield

Seraphina had always had shields.

She had grown up shielded from the truth, her truth. And when that mental shield had collapsed and the truth had come spilling in, her shields had become physical: extra sleeves to cover her glistening silver scales, social seclusion from what had never been a large group of friends, and a tutor to stand guard over her and keep her safe. She found she didn't resent it, not anymore.

For now, her shield was an emotional one—Selda. She kept her safe, and around her, Phina was never an outcast. She mattered, and she belonged.


	18. At Work

Seraphina didn't get to skip work just because she had a pregnancy to hide. Viridius knew the situation, and he insisted that even while she was gone, she composed. And so every morning, she was at the harpsichord, composing.

She had to stay focused, but there were a million distracting things: Selda insisting she break for food or tea; servants cleaning the room as surreptitiously as they could; Selda glancing up from her reading occasionally to smile at her; sounds from the passing pedestrians passing by; Selda, just sitting nearby, being Selda.

She couldn't get distracted. She was at work.


	19. Perform

Seraphina didn't like performing. It put her in a vulnerable position, something she normally avoided.

Glisselda kissed her cheek each time she went up to perform. Phina used to think nothing of it, back when their relationship was new and all physical contact felt imbued with meaning already, a kiss being nothing exceptional. But looking back, she realized that it was an eye of the storm in their otherwise chaotic lives.

No—it was an anchor. Glisselda knew Phina was scared, and so she latched onto her, linking their fates. The kiss—short, rushed, easy to dismiss—was a promise.


	20. Ribbon

Seraphina would never truly assimilate into palace life, and nowhere was this more obvious than in the way she dressed her daughter. Seraphina would wear what was expected of her at this point: gowns, jewelry. But Zythia was relegated simple frocks, practical, like the ones that most non-royal girls grew up wearing.

Glisselda found it quaint, up until she didn't anymore. While Phina was distracted with something, Selda added a ribbon to Zythia's hair. That day, they went back and forth, Phina taking out the ribbon and Selda replacing it, until Zythia finally tore it out herself and hid it.


	21. Lazy

Sometimes, they just needed to be lazy, to stretch out on a sofa, tangled in each other’s arms, sometimes speaking, sometimes not, always listening for heartbeats and breaths, ears against chests and fingertips against palms.

Sometimes, they just needed to ignore what was going in the queendom, when they had done as much as they could and it hadn’t been enough, when Selda came home late, crying, and Phina took her hand and led her to bed, where she held her until tears finally gave way to sleep.

Sometimes, they just needed each other, in the midst of it all.


	22. Glass

Centuries later, Seraphina was revered. Chapels dedicated entire rooms to the great St. Seraphina, keeping her ancient artifacts preserved within cabinets. Stained glass windows of green and blue depicted her, golden mind-fire visible, protecting Goredd.

These images held secrets. Historians speculated about the petite blonde woman who appeared in so many stained glass windows, always at the saint's side. A few believed that it was Queen Glisselda of Goredd, and fewer still guessed at the nature of their relationship. But no one was ever able to confirm it, and over time, whatever had been faded into the mists of history.


	23. Ice

Goreddi winters tended to be icy, and that Treaty Eve was no exception. They had tried to stay up all night, and they knew that them leaving would raise a good share of whispers and rumors. But they also knew that the air was too brisk to be somewhere other than under a blanket anymore.

They snuck out as quietly as they could and returned to the room, where Zythia's nurse had already put her to bed. Her mothers curled up on either side of her, and the three of them remained there the whole night, keeping each other warm.


	24. Sword

Zythia was endlessly curious, and her parents didn’t want to shelter her. They let her go with them to explore a hidden stash of ancient artifacts they’d uncovered, presumably Queen Belondweg’s, judging by their engravings of Pau-Henoa.

Phina and Selda, busy examining a suit of armor, barely looked up in time to see Zythia, about to knock over a sword that was leaning treacherously in a corner. Seraphina, frozen, watched as Glisselda frantically rushed over and scooped up their daughter. Zythia looked confusedly between her two mothers as they each squeezed their eyes shut and breathed a sigh of relief.


	25. Candle

Candles were bright. They lined the tables, the mantle, the desk, anywhere their daughter couldn't reach.

Windows let in the light. Curtains were kept open, tied back in tight knots, as if those strings alone were what kept the darkness forever at bay.

Objects had purpose (books, paper, pens) or aesthetic (vases, birthday flowers, paintings) or both (quigutl devices and figurines).

They built their home out of light and use and beauty, built it from the metaphorical ground to the figurative ceiling with what they had between them—what had always been there, what they were making new each day.


	26. Dress Up

"Let's dress up," Glisselda said. "Let's go out tonight."

Seraphina, flipping through papers, asked, "Any particular reason?"

"Do I need a reason to spend time with the woman I love?" Selda replied, coming across the room to stand behind Phina and wrap her arms around her, standing on her tiptoes and angling her neck to rest her head on Phina's shoulder. "And it's your birthday, darling. You didn't think I'd forgotten, did you?"

Phina laughed. "I should have known you wouldn't."

"What did you think the flowers were for, silly?" Selda giggled. "Come on, let's go."

Phina smiled. "All right."


	27. Dance

The pavano was reserved for Kiggs and Phina, so Phina and Selda got the cinque pas.

It was a difficult dance, and Phina was bad at it, though Selda insisted otherwise. They couldn't dance in public—they would end up scandalizing their guests—but that didn't mean they couldn't in their rooms. Orma had given Seraphina a device for recording and playing back audio; she used it to set up the cinque pas music to which she and Selda liked to dance.

They tripped over their feet and (ostensibly by accident) crashed into each other, falling into one another's arms.


	28. Pillows

The sunlight came too early. Glisselda groaned, pulled her pillow out from under her head, and covered her face with it.

Seraphina did not, unfortunately, have that luxury, as she actually had to work. She sat up and stretched, but a tug at her wrist led to her falling right back onto the pillows.

"Stay," came Selda's muffled voice from under the pillow.

Seraphina smiled. "Fine. A few more minutes."

"We have all the time in the world," Glisselda said, pushing the pillow away and, her hand still on Phina's wrist, pulling her closer as she drifted back to sleep.


End file.
